From Tamar-kali to Ronit Kirchman: 5 Female Composers You Should Know

More and more, female composers are giving some of film, television and multi-media’s most memorable and impactful scores. Here are five that we think you should know about.

Ariel Marx is an award-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist whose scores have premiered alongside films at Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW – winning awards at several for her musical contributions. She recently scored Jennifer Fox’s, The Tale (Laura Dern, Elizabeth Debicki, Jason Ritter, Ellen Burstyn, Common and John Heard), and Shawn Snyder film, To Dust, which will premiere at Tribeca Film Festival, April 22nd.

Brooklyn-born musician Tamar-kali made a big impact in 2017 with the score to Dee Rees’ Oscar-nominated and critically acclaimed film, Mudbound. Her score led her to be selected by The Hollywood Reporter to appear in the highly coveted Composer Roundtable, making history as the first person of color to appear in the article. To further solidify the score’s success and importance, Indiewire listed the composition as one of the Top 25 Film Scores of the 21st Century. Tamar-kali recently composed the score for Joshua Marston’s Sundance film, Come Sunday (Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jason Segal, Lakeith Stanfield), set to premiere April 13th on Netflix.

Amelia Warner began creating music after pursuing an acting career in her native England. While working on set, she would write melodies and songs between takes, bringing her passion for music into focus. Her first major score was for the award-winning British short, Mam. Soon after, Amelia released her Fyfe Dangerfield produced EP, Arms under Universal Music. The 5-track album landed her in the number 1 spot on iTunes classical music charts. Her second EP, Visitors earned a repeat at number 1 on the iTunes classical charts. In 2016, Amelia scored her first feature length film, Mum’s List, followed by an ethereal original score to the upcoming film Mary Shelley (Elle Fanning, Maisie Williams, Douglas Booth).

Composer and songwriter Ronit Kirchman, wrote the score for the riveting Golden Globe nominated series, The Sinner (USA) and is the first-ever composer recipient of the Sundance Institute Time Warner Foundation Fellowship in Film Music and has been awarded the Sundance Composers Lab and Documentary Composers Lab Fellowships. Ronit’s widely varied film scores include, Zen and the Art of Dying, Finding Neighbors, The Skin I’m In, The Golden Age of Fish, Say You Love Me, and Brooklyn.

Sofia Hultquist (aka Drum & Lace) writes and creates music for film, fashion and media. Sofia’s fashion score brands include (but are not limited to): NARS, Diane Von Furstenberg, Levi’s, The Palatines, and Laura Sigel. Her composition work ranges from writing music and soundscapes for fashion presentations to commercials and composing for feature-length films such as co-scoring the fashion documentary, The First Monday in May (directed by Andrew Rossi) which opened at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2016. She also performs live as Drum & Lace and has played at various art galleries and venues in Los Angeles. Sofia most recently scored fashion designer, Andre Leon Talley biopic, The Gospel According to Andre, which premieres in theaters May 25th.

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About Erik Anderson

Erik thanks his mother for his love of all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards together since he was in the single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself at GoldDerby, led by Tom O’Neill and then migrated over to Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), headed up by Sasha Stone before breaking off to create AwardsWatch. He is a member of the International Cinephile Society, GALECA (The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics), the International Press Academy and is the founder/owner of AwardsWatch.

2020 Best Picture Predictions

1917 (Universal) December 25
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (Sony/Columbia) November 22
Ford v. Ferrari (20th Century Fox) November 15
Harriet (Focus Features) November 1
The Irishman (Netflix)
Jojo Rabbit (Fox Searchlight) October 18
Just Mercy (Warner Bros.) January 17, 2020
The Laundromat (Netflix)
Little Women (Sony/Columbia) December 25
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (Sony/Columbia) July 26

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